Confluence Wealth Services Inc. Has $417,000 Holdings in PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL)

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. lessened its position in shares of PPL Co. (NYSE:PPL) by 10.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,129 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,681 shares during the period. Confluence Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in PPL were worth $417,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PPL. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new stake in PPL in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Allworth Financial LP grew its stake in shares of PPL by 179.8% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,038 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 667 shares in the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in PPL during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in PPL in the 3rd quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in PPL in the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.99% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on PPL. TheStreet downgraded shares of PPL from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. StockNews.com upgraded PPL from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Barclays upped their price objective on PPL from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Bank of America raised their price objective on PPL from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Argus raised PPL from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.50.

PPL Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:PPL traded down $0.07 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $27.46. 6,292,793 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,942,370. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. PPL Co. has a fifty-two week low of $22.20 and a fifty-two week high of $29.03. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.46, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.81.

PPL (NYSE:PPL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 16th. The utilities provider reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.02. PPL had a return on equity of 8.45% and a net margin of 8.90%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.28 earnings per share. PPL’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that PPL Co. will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

PPL Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a dividend of $0.2575 per share. This represents a $1.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This is an increase from PPL’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. PPL’s dividend payout ratio is currently 103.00%.

PPL Company Profile

PPL Corporation, an energy company, focuses on providing electricity and natural gas to approximately 3.6 million customers in the United States. It operates through three segments: Kentucky Regulated, Pennsylvania Regulated, and Rhode Island Regulated. The company delivers electricity to customers in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Rhode Island; delivers natural gas to customers in Kentucky and Rhode Island; and generates electricity from power plants in Kentucky.